Marcus

Chapter Twelve

Caroline ~

Caroline wrapped her hand around her sore ribs, applying light pressure and feeling the stabbing pain that accompanied the small motion.

Yep, those are probably broken...great.

A medic was stitching up a cut over her eye, one that had been delivered by Hashim, who was less than pleased that she had not only freed a hostage, but also blown her cover by throwing her body weight into one of his snipers causing him to miss his shot.

What choice did I have? I couldn't leave that FBI agent in a cage to rot and once I heard a special ops team was on the grounds I saw my window of opportunity and I fucking took it. Not to mention the fact that Fox should have told me that there was a damn rescue op in the works so I could have prepared, maybe I wouldn't have had to blow my cover and ruin eight months of work.

Hashim was under the impression that Caroline was a turncoat - A CIA agent who had turned on her country. She would return to base occasionally and Fox would give her small expendable tid bits of information to pass on to Hashim so he would truly believe she was spying for him. In the meantime she would attend Hashim's slave bazaars as his personal date and relay every ounce of information she gathered back to Fox. It was dangerous work, but she was damn good at it. She had been working that job for eight months and had saved over one hundred and fifty women with the intel she gathered.

"Let me take a look at that side." The medic said, lifting her arm that was tucked against her sore ribs.

Caroline lifted her arm slowly, wincing and huffing against the pain that radiated up her side at the smallest amount of motion.

The medic pushed against her side with his thumbs, causing her to let out a low groan as she pulled away from the pressure.

You're going to need an x-ray, but I can almost guarantee you've got a few broken ribs.

"Lovely." Caroline said through gritted teeth, trying to muster a smile.

"I know you said the lacerations to your face were caused by bare hands, but what about the trauma to your ribs?"

"Buttstock of a rifle I believe, I was a little busy though so I didn't get a good look." Caroline snickered.

"And this? This looks like it came from a blade" The medic said, examining a shallow cut along her neck.

"You're a smart cookie, you know that?" Caroline chuckled.

The medic shook his head and laughed to himself as he cleaned the wound.

Caroline gave him a bright smile just to make sure she knew he was just busting his balls.

"All joking aside, I really appreciate you guys coming to pick me up."

"No problem ma'am. Looks like you put up quite a fight. Why don't you just lay back and take it easy till we get to base."

"Copy that." Caroline said with a grunt, lowering herself down awkwardly until she was laying flat on her back.

She had barely drifted off to sleep when she heard the medic call out to her "Two minutes out." through the headphones she was wearing. Giving him a thumbs up, Caroline carefully planted her hands down on the gurney and pushed herself up to a seated position, having to grit her back teeth to keep from screaming at the searing pain that spread across her entire torso.

Once the chopper touched down, the medics hopped out and offered their hands to her, helping her out carefully. She reached for their outstretched arms with one hand, keeping the other tightly wrapped around her injured ribs as her feet feebly found the ground.